Human Race

Commemorated

Seventy years after Nov. 24, 1945, four siblings in China helped their parents re-enact their wedding day. Cao Yuehua and his wife, Wang Deyi, revisited the same hot springs park in southwest China for the occasion, complete with bow tie and wedding dress. Cao proposed upon his return from assisting the U.S. military in India during World War II, and the marriage survived the rise of communism and the Cultural Revolution. The husband and wife, at ages 97 and 98 respectively, can still recite wartime love poems they sent to one another.

Died

Sandy Berger, a national security adviser to President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001, died from cancer Dec. 2. He was 70. Berger served on Clinton’s foreign policy team throughout his presidency and was deeply involved in the 1998 U.S. bombing of Iraq, the U.S. response to the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, and the 1999 NATO-led bombing of Kosovo. In 2005, Berger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for removing classified documents related to the Clinton administration’s counterterror efforts from the National Archives, hiding them in his pant legs.

Sentenced

Singaporean megachurch pastor Kong Hee, along with five other church officials, will head to prison in January for misappropriating church funds. A judge convicted the City Harvest Church leaders in October and sentenced them on Nov. 20 to up to eight years in prison. Prosecutors said the church leaders funneled $35 million in church donations to fund, in large part, the singing career of Kong’s wife, Sun Ho. The defendants have appealed their convictions.

Convicted

A Philippine court on Dec. 1 found a U.S. Marine guilty of killing a transgender person while on leave in Olongapo City in 2014. Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton strangled Jennifer Laude in an altercation after he discovered Laude was male during a sexual encounter. The U.S. and Philippine militaries were conducting joint exercises at the time, and the case has soured public opinion on American presence. Pemberton must spend six to 12 years in jail and pay $98,000 to the family.

Overturned

A South African appeals court on Dec. 3 convicted Olympian and double amputee Oscar Pistorius of murder, throwing out his earlier manslaughter conviction. Pistorius, 29, shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a bathroom door in 2013, claiming he believed her to be an intruder. South African murder law depends on intent to kill: No matter who he thought was behind the door, the five-judge panel ruled, Pistorius should have known his actions would likely result in death. Pistorius, who had begun serving his initial five-year sentence, could face 15 years in prison under the new conviction.

Appointed

President Obama on Nov. 30 named Robert Malley a senior adviser on ISIS policy. Malley, previously at the National Security Council, also served as a Middle East policy adviser under President Bill Clinton. Some conservatives have accused Malley of anti-Israel bias: He blamed the failure of the 2000 Camp David peace talks not just on Palestinian leadership but on Israeli leader Ehud Barak, and in 2012 he criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “obsession” with Iran. Controversy over Malley’s personal meetings with the Hamas terror organization, part of his role with the International Crisis Group, forced him to step down as an informal adviser to Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Pressured

A California surrogate mother faces what amounts to forced abortion from the Georgia father of triplets she’s carrying. Melissa Cook, 47, agreed to be a surrogate for the man, using his sperm and three donor eggs, in exchange for up to $45,000. All three embryos implanted and survived, but the father has threatened to sue her unless she aborts one child. As of Thanksgiving, Cook was 17 weeks pregnant and unsure what to do. “They are human beings. I bonded with these kids,” she told the New York Post.

Saved

A Chinese pro-life activist is safe in the United States after facing pressure in China to abort her second child. Sarah Huang (not her real name) had helped over 100 women navigate the communist government’s population control policies, but found herself pregnant this fall and feared a forced abortion. China’s new two-child policy didn’t apply to her, and her family couldn’t afford a $35,000 fine. Huang arrived in Dallas with her husband and 5-year-old son the day before Thanksgiving, with permission to stay six months. She testified before Congress on Dec. 3, calling on President Obama to denounce China’s child policies.

Abandoned

A custodian found a newborn boy in the manger of a Nativity scene inside New York City’s Holy Child Jesus Church on Nov. 23. The 5-pound child was unharmed, its umbilical cord still attached. The mother, who returned to verify the child had been found, won’t be charged since she acted in accordance with the spirit of New York’s “safe haven” law. Days later, on Nov. 27 in Los Angeles County, Calif., police found a newborn girl buried alive under loose chunks of dirt and asphalt along a bike path, unharmed. The county has its own law allowing women to surrender babies at fire stations and other locations: Sixteen women have done so this year.

Retiring

Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant published a poem on Nov. 29 announcing this season would be his last. With Bryant’s shooting game struggling, the Los Angeles Lakers were the first this year to lose to the Philadelphia 76ers, who themselves had started the season with 18 straight losses. The five-time NBA champion opened up on Showtime this year about his career and personal flaws: He blames himself for his wife’s miscarriage during the stress of his 2004 trial over an alleged rape (the charge was dropped). On Thanksgiving weekend Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, wrote she was excited “to see what God has in store for us.”

By the numbers

7 million | The number of subscribers sports network ESPN has lost over the last two years, according to a recent SEC filing by ESPN’s parent company, Disney.

300,000 | The number of tons of CO2 emitted by attendees traveling to the Paris climate talks, as estimated by Wired magazine.

$18.4 million | The amount professors and employees at Big Ten conference schools have donated to Democratic candidates since 1990, according to The Daily Caller. They donated only $3.4 million to Republicans.